Good morning.
I wake up and it’s about 5:30. At least I didn’t get soaking wet during the night although it was raining the entire time. Today Daniel really shows me around the village. There are 3 huts, one small store room, a common/cooking area and an outhouse. A little deeper into the bushes stands a small wooden house, this is what he needs help with. It has to be finished, it’s built out of wooden pallets and other reject materials. Very interesting.
The toilets are just an open bamboo hut with a thatch roof and there are no showers. There’s a bucket in the hut with some water. If you want to wash yourself you do it in there.
I still fail to see the paradise in this place. Daniel tells me that when he first arrived in Swaziland 8 years ago, he met an Italian traveler who showed him a hand drawn map to a secret weed paradise in the mountains of Northern Swaziland. So they went and looked for the place. After asking a bunch of locals and exploring a bit, they stumbled upon this place. The weed paradise of Swaziland. So by day 3 of my adventure, it turns out that I find myself in a weed paradise. Too bad I don’t smoke. Why couldn’t it have been a chocolate milkshake paradise or a pizza paradise. I would’ve been in heaven. I also learn that it’s a good thing that the roads are so bad. The police don’t bother driving on these roads and neither does the weed thieves.
I ask Mthunzi to show me his plantations, I’ve never seen a weed plantation before. They are not located near the village so he says that he will show me another day. I won’t stop nagging until I see it though…
Mthunzi and Daniel take me on a scenic trip around the area. First they take me to the town of Pigg’s Peak, after that a scenic tour through the mountains toward Maguga Dam. It hasn’t stopped raining yet and the fog are still everywhere so I can’t really see anything but I still enjoy the outing. As we approach Maguga Dam the weather clears up a little bit. Ah… Finally I can see further than the edge of the road. We stop at the dam to chill for a bit.
When we leave from the dam, we attempt to go back to the village but due to the rain, the road are impossible to drive on. We are stuck. So we decide to head back to the hostel and spend the night there. Maybe tommorrow we will be able to use the road. Before we head to the hostel, we stop at a local tavern for a few games of pool. First I play gainst Daniel. I get my ass handed to me. After that he plays against Mthunzi, he wins again. He then plays one of the local guys which he also beats. By now he’s got a bit of a crowd going. One after the other he takes the guys down. Every time he wins. They throw an even better player at him. The reaction on their faces when he wins their best players was just priceless. He lost eventually though, but we had a good time.
At the hostel I meet up with two South African guys that stays in a town just 60km from where I lived. Interesting guys, the one shows me a Zimbabwean bank note. I’ve never held so much money in my hands before…
I’m going to bed now. Good night….
Stephan Roelofse Travels 